How is Sunlight Changing? Winter Mornings in North America (Back to Sunlight Observation) Shadows Change, Too! Are your students measuring the length of an object's shadow at the same time each week or month? They should begin to notice that the shadow gets shorter after the winter solstice as the sun appears higher in the sky. (The rays begin to strike the Earth more directly in the Northern Hemisphere.) If your students are tracking sunrise and sunset times, they may have noticed these things: Day length shortens before the solstice and lengthens after the solstice, but it barely changes for about a week before or after the solstice. (Remember, solstice means sun stop. The apparent movement of the sun is imperceptible during this period.) The sun actually begins to set later a couple of weeks before the winter solstice (depending on your latitude), but the sunrise doesn't begin to get earlier until two weeks after the solstice: about the 5th of January. (This has to do with the tilt of Earth's axis and its slightly elliptical orbit.) The rate of change in day length from day to day is lowest near the winter and summer solstice and highest near the spring and fall equinoxes.   Back to Observation Facebook Pinterest Twitter © 1997 – 2024 Journey North. All rights reserved.